


moonstruck

by abovemvthroat



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: Again as usual, I'm Sorry, I'm a horrible person, M/M, This is too short, and fluffy, as usual, ignore these tags they contribute absolutely nothing to the story, it's 4 am i'm sorry, le sigh, pining!mack, poor mack why do i always make him pine, why do i abuse tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-06 14:38:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6758119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abovemvthroat/pseuds/abovemvthroat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>if something was wrong with dalton, surely he'd have noticed before now. but the boy was better at hiding things than mack gave him credit for sometimes, he'd learned that much in the short time they'd known each other.</i> </p><p>or,  mack is worried and dalton affects him more than he should</p>
            </blockquote>





	moonstruck

**Author's Note:**

  * For [toughguyhuh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/toughguyhuh/gifts).



> somewhat based on [this tumblr prompt post](http://dailyau.tumblr.com/post/143846248534/i-went-over-to-your-room-because-you-were): "'I went over to your room because you were blasting music to find you lying in a pile of pillows sobbing and listening to some love song and now I don’t know what to do' AU" 
> 
> gifted to my arribean bc she's my dalkenzie writin buddy and i <3 her big
> 
> {titled based on _moonstruck. adj. unable to think or act normally, especially because of being in love_ }

it wasn't the music, necessarily, that was keeping mack awake. he'd become relatively used to it blaring through the thin wall between dalton's hotel room and his own at different times throughout the day. though it usually wasn't this late at night. _usually_ dalton was dead to the world at this point, drained from hours upon hours of rehearsal and preparation for the thursday ahead. not listening to what sounded vaguely like ed sheeran and keeping mack up in the process. 

but still it wasn't just the music keeping him up. he couldn't shake the feeling that maybe something was wrong, that something was just... off. he was probably overthinking it, just being overprotective. if something was wrong with dalton, surely he'd have noticed before now. but the boy was better at hiding things than mack gave him credit for sometimes, he'd learned that much in the short time they'd known each other. 

so with his mind half on sleep and half on the boy in the next room, mack managed to drag himself to dalton's door, knock on it half-heartedly, "dalton?" he had a key card to dalton's room, could've just walked in like he normally did. but that feeling that something was wrong tugged at him, and he thought better of it. 

it took a few more knocks to elicit a response from inside the room, the music cutting off abruptly with a muffled "just a minute" before the light flicked on and illuminated the small strip of space under the door. _just a minute_ turned into several with sounds of dalton moving around inside the tiny room as mack lingered and listened outside his door. "you know, it's just me, you don't have to clean up-" 

the door opened with a little more force than necessary, revealed a very tired-looking dalton. who just muttered a quiet "sorry," walked back into the room. mack had barely shut the door behind them before dalton was in bed again, his back to the older boy. mack felt a pang of worry, he'd clearly been right then. "dalton," he started but trailed off, had no idea what he was supposed to say when his friend clearly wasn't in the mood for talking. 

_friend._ he hated that word. hated how that one little word was the cause of all that space between them, the space between what they were and what he wanted them to be. 

dalton turned over, looked at him. looked as if he might try to apologize again. _or ask why you're still standing all the way over there,_ that stupid part of mack's brain piped in, the part responsible for wishful thinking and unrequited love. 

_friend friend friend._ at least if he had to be a friend, he'd be a good one. he didn't hesitate as much as he should've before cutting the light out again and collapsing onto the cold bed parallel to dalton. before he could ask, before he could worry more over the situation, dalton sighed through his nose, sniffled. 

"sometimes it just.." his voice was hoarse from something mack refused to imagine him doing. he paused, sniffled again, "gets to be a little bit too much." mack didn't know exactly what to make of that, wanted to ask but could tell dalton didn't want to explain further. so he opted for resting a hesitant and slightly shaky hand on the younger boy's shoulder instead, thumb running back and forth along the seam of dalton's t-shirt, and the feeling of dalton relaxing under his touch was so subtle he wondered if he'd imagined it. "you'll be okay," he told him, trying to convince himself as much as dalton, voice barely above a whisper, "it'll be okay, just get some sleep." dalton only blinked at him with those still sad eyes. "i'll stay," mack added before dalton could ask, he knew he hated asking. dalton nodded slightly, eyes starting to close, and mack hoped dalton couldn't feel his hand still shaking as his thumb rubbed circles into his shoulder. though the older boy fought the urge to move it up, to run his fingers through the blonde hair inches away, to pull dalton closer, closer until there was no space left between them, no more _friendship_ left between them, until mack could feel dalton's heartbeat through the thin material of their t-shirts and his head buried in the crook of his neck and his breath on his collarbones. he wanted to hold him as close as physically possible, to make him feel safe. 

but he couldn't do that. so he just stayed there, awake to be sure dalton was asleep, still tracing comforting patterns on his shoulder despite the fact that he finally was.

**Author's Note:**

> abrupt endings ftw!! about damn time i posted again, sorry it wasn't really worth the wait, life's been crazy n it's been hard to find time to write at all let alone v well but hopefully this wasn't too sucky. thank you sm for reading, hit me with kudos n a comment if you liked it<3
> 
> [my tumblr](http://www.daltonxmackenzie.tumblr.com) | [my twitter](http://www.twitter.com/DALTONRAPATTONl)


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